The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

26.10.2018 Picks of the Week

More activists convicted over environmental protest in Brest; government employees "assist" farmers to harvest crops; Amnesty International welcomes the release of Dzmitry Paliyenka

19.10.2018 Picks of the Week

Human rights lawyer arrested in Brest; opposition activist convicted over anti-military protest; journalists routinely harassed across Belarus

10.10.2018 Viasna activist fined in Svietlahorsk

Alena Masliukova, activist of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” in Svietlahorsk, has been fined 612.5 rubles (USD 285) on charges of organizing an illegal assembly.

01.10.2018 Observatory: Drop charges against Svietlahorsk activists

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the judicial harassment of Ms. Alena Masliukova, member of Human Rights Centre “Viasna” in Svetlogorsk and Mr. Anatoly Zmitrovich, an environmental activist.

07.09.2018 Picks of the Week

Statistics of administrative persecution in August; REP leaders appeal verdict; journalist in Braslaŭ convicted for eighth time since 2011

06.09.2018 Viasna alerts UN Special Rapporteurs over persecution for solidarity with REP leaders

The Human Rights Center "Viasna" has written to Mr. David Kaye, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, United Nations Special Rapporteur on rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, to highlight the sentencing of 11 opposition activists, who staged a protest outside the House of Justice in Minsk on August 24 to demonstrate solidarity with the convicted leaders of the independent trade union REP Henadz Fiadynich and Ihar Komlik.

31.08.2018 Picks of the Week

Courts convict activists over support for REP leaders; new suspect named in BelTA case; blogger in Brest live streams own arrest; political prisoner Mikhail Zhamchuzhny faces new penalties in prison

20.07.2018 Picks of the Week

LGBTQ activist fined for speaking back to homophobic statements by Interior Minister; Viasna volunteer loses compensation trial for illegal arrest; opposition activists continue picketing controversial restaurant

17.07.2018 Belarus: New low as authorities slap solo LGBTI protester with fine for ‘mass’ protest

The Belarusian authorities have hit an absurd new low in persecuting peaceful LGBTI activists, Amnesty International said today after a court in Minsk found Viktoria Biran guilty of violating a mass public assemblies law for posing alone for a photo with a poster.

10.07.2018 Viasna writes to UN Special Rapporteur on peaceful assembly over July 3 arrests

Aliaksei Loika, lawyer of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, has prepared a message to Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, to complain about the illegal arrest and detention of over 30 protesters and observers on July 3 in Minsk.

04.07.2018 Viasna observers arrested ahead of banned protest in Minsk

Five observers of Viasna and BHC’s joint monitoring service #ControlBY were briefly detained in Minsk yesterday afternoon ahead of a protest announced by opposition leader Mikalai Statkevich.

30.06.2018 Picks of the Week

Activists continue to picket a restaurant near the Minsk belt motorway, which many say infringes on the territory of a nearby mass grave of Stalin-time victims, popularly known as Kurapaty. The protesters prevent cars from entering the facility, sometimes risking their lives.

20.06.2018 EaP CSF’s Belarusian National Platform defends protesters against controversial restaurant in Kurapaty

The Belarusian National Platform of the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership has issued a statement to “express deep concern” over the construction and opening of the restaurant Poedem, Poedim next to the historical and cultural site Kurapaty in Minsk.

19.06.2018 Legacy of Dark Days: Protesters penalized for honoring victims of Stalinist repression

The video created by the Human Rights Center "Viasna" highlights the stories of two activists from Minsk, 80-year-old Anton Vusovich and 66-year-old Vera Vakulovich. They were among a few dozen people who gathered on October 29, 2017 outside the KGB building in Minsk to participate in a memorial picket called Chain of Memory.